Chapter 235: Physical Third Round

In the audience seats.

The civil engineering representative from Wanfa University, "Erha Head," looked at the results of this round and nodded with satisfaction, saying, "Not bad, not bad. Ye Lingxiao has a sharp mind and adapts quickly to physical changes. Once he's equipped with an office-use Dharma Skeleton, he'll be a promising talent for feng shui and formation design. Working 48 hours a day should be no problem."

"Zhang Yu's physical body has improved faster than his Dao heart, which shows his body is more useful than his brain. In the future, he'll definitely be a great hand at digging dirt on the construction site. He won't even need many Dharma Skeletons—he can just be a versatile physical cultivator. Not only is he more useful than a Dharma artifact, but his food expenses are definitely cheaper than renting Dharma artifacts."

Having said that, he was already laughing: "One for design, one for construction. These two will surely become the twin jewels of our civil engineering department in the future."

At this moment, he could hardly wait to recruit both of them.

He thought to himself: "The market competition is fierce now. On one hand, the bankruptcy rate, demonization rate, and sudden death rate among civil engineering students keep rising year after year, and there's never enough capable current students. On the other hand, those beast bastards from Tianyao University are undercutting prices, and the department's revenue keeps dropping."

"If I can train these two well, they'll definitely surpass those ox demons, horse demons, dragon demons, and elephant demons, and help me make more money..."

As for why he preferred using current students over graduates, it was naturally because graduates demanded too high a salary—current students were much more convenient.

Beside him, the cat-head representative from the finance department heard Erha Head's lament and nodded slightly, saying, "These two are indeed decent."

"Although they're not wealthy enough, their immortal path foundation is a bit weak."

"But Heaven's Way operates on give and take; it always leaves a sliver of opportunity to climb the immortal path."

"Their immortal path foundation may be lacking, but their borrowing potential is quite high."

"If they enter Wanfa, you can send them to me, and I can help them arrange a student loan."

Having said that, the cat-head reminded him, "But I see quite a few people here interested in them. If you spread your bets evenly on both, you might end up recruiting neither."

"It's better to concentrate your budget and focus on one person to increase the success rate."

Erha Head pondered after hearing this: "You have a point..."

The cat-head asked curiously, "So who do you plan to concentrate your budget on recruiting?"

Erha Head smiled slightly and said, "Naturally, Ye Lingxiao. Between these two, Ye Lingxiao is still stronger for now."

"Besides, he's already a senior in high school. He'll be enrolling in half a year, so we can put him to work immediately."

"As for Zhang Yu... he'll take the college entrance exam next year, so we can talk about it then. No rush."

Just as the two representatives from Wanfa University were discussing their future arrangements, the "Smile Emoji" on the other side said to his son, "See, didn't I tell you? Isn't Ye Lingxiao the better choice?"

"His low sync rate with the Dharma Skeleton shows that Zhang Yu's brain clearly isn't as sharp as Ye Lingxiao's."

"In fact, this was obvious from the last round—poverty limits one's perspective, and he lacked training in this area from a young age..."

The "Tears of Joy Emoji" beside him nodded absentmindedly and thought to himself, "If he's not as good as Ye Lingxiao, so be it. Why not take both?"

"After all, I can only use Ye Lingxiao for half a year. Zhang Yu still has a year and a half before college, so he'll be perfect as a replacement high school poster boy once Ye Lingxiao leaves."

Meanwhile, Huang Zichou had almost finished explaining the content of the third round.

Zhang Yu pondered the content of this final round in his mind and thought to himself, "We have to use the Binding Dragon Rope to compete with Ye Lingxiao in physical performance under various dangerous environments?"

High temperature, low temperature, high pressure, potent poison, strong acid, strong alkali, super gravity...

Zhang Yu and Ye Lingxiao would experience different hazardous environments at random in the examination room of this final round.

Under such drastically changing conditions, even their formidable bodies would face life-threatening danger.

Huang Zichou reminded them again, "The medical expenses after the exam are sponsored by Wanquan Medical Insurance Company. If you feel you can't hold on, immediately press the alarm device, and I will safely send you out for treatment."

"Let me remind you again: the hazardous environments in this round, under rapid changes, already have the potential to kill you."

"So if you feel you can't hold on, admit defeat immediately."

"If you die in the exam venue, this exam assumes no responsibility, and you will receive no compensation whatsoever..."

To clarify this point, Zhang Yu and Ye Lingxiao signed a contract in the presence of five righteous gods on site, pledging that regardless of whether they ended up disabled, seriously injured, or dead in the final round's exam venue—no matter what harm they suffered—they would not pursue liability, demand compensation, or disclose any information externally...

Looking at the dense list of possible injuries, line after line, and the extensive waivers of rights that followed, Zhang Yu increasingly felt the danger of the next round.

But having come this far, Zhang Yu naturally couldn't give up. He simply thought to himself, "But the fact that this round could lead to death... is this intentional pressure on us?"

"If we misjudge and are about to die from danger beyond our limits, will the righteous gods not save us?"

"Given Kunxu's temperament, it's not impossible for them to set up such a dangerous exam..." Meanwhile, on the other side, Huang Zichou thought to himself, "Lord Deng is indeed a sixth-rank superior god. This exam tests comprehensively while producing results that leave no room for argument, and we can also sell a batch of test data on a peak Qi Refining physical body under various environments. Killing two birds with one stone."

But the hazardous environments that Zhang Yu considered very dangerous were only part of this exam.

In this dangerous environment, he and Ye Lingxiao would stand together on a high platform, each gripping one end of the Dragon Binding Rope.

As for the so-called Dragon Binding Rope, according to Huang Zichou's introduction just now, it was a long chain made of high-strength material, said to be a binding device once used to imprison dragons.

Zhang Yu and Ye Lingxiao each grabbed one end of the Dragon Binding Rope. Whoever could pull the other off the high platform first would win this test.

If anyone let go of the Dragon Binding Rope, they would be directly judged as losing.

Of course, if anyone couldn't hold on in the dangerous environment, they would also be judged as losing.

Huang Zichou said, "This level tests not only your vitality and physical resilience under dangerous circumstances, but also your physical strength, and the potential that can burst forth from your body under such high pressure."

"And the key to it all is this high pressure."

"Compared to the path ahead of you, high school might already be the last time you can relax..."

"Fuck..." Zhang Yu cursed in his heart, "When was high school ever relaxing?!"

!

Huang Zichou: "Once you enter university, you will truly step onto the immortal path. During these ten years of university, you won't have a single chance to relax; the pressure you face will only increase year by year."

"Sudden death, bankruptcy, expulsion, demonization... all kinds of threats will keep coming at you, forcing out your potential."

"The focus of this level is to test what kind of potential you can display under all sorts of high pressure..."

"You will have half an hour of rest time now to recover from the consumption and effects of the first two levels."

"Half an hour later, the final level of the exam will officially begin."

Right after Huang Zichou announced this half-hour rest, Zhang Yu suddenly asked, "Examiner, are the medicines in the cabinet still available during this half hour?"

Hearing this question, Huang Zichou was slightly taken aback.

At the same time, some righteous gods in the internal network immediately expressed opposition.

Mu Guiyin said, "The competition hasn't even officially started yet—why eat? This just unnecessarily increases the budget."

While the minor gods were voicing their objections, Huang Zichou stayed silent, since spending more money was the great enemy of righteous gods, and anyone who supported it would surely become a target of public criticism.

But just then, Huang Zichou suddenly received a message from Deng Bingding.

"Lord Deng? You want me to support opening the medicines?" Huang Zichou was slightly stunned when he saw the message, but the next moment, he decisively spoke up: "Medicines for the exam—shouldn't they be taken before the exam? I think it's fine."

After the minor gods started arguing and eventually turned their eyes to Deng Bingding, this sixth-rank righteous god, acting as the referee, made his decision: "What Mu Guiyin said makes sense (thumbs up), but what Zichou said is also not a problem (thumbs up)."

"I say we open the medicines 15 minutes before the exam."

Having said that, Deng Bingding smiled slightly and added, "The sponsors also said they rarely see someone like Zhang Yu who takes medicine with such gusto. They can feel a kind of 'medicine hunger' from him and especially like the way he eats. They are willing to donate another batch of medicine so Zhang Yu can eat his fill."

So, after resting for 15 minutes, when the medicine cabinet opened, Zhang Yu quickly walked over, grabbed a large bottle of medicine, and gulped it down.

At the same time, his chain technique diagram had already switched to the High School Saint Body state, pushing his ability to handle drug load and metabolism to the limit of the Qi Refining stage.

Zhang Yu felt the swallowed medicine turn into surging medicinal power exploding inside his body, and soon after, waves of medicinal toxins gathered toward the "Zen" character on his chest.

He thought to himself, "Very good, I need to seize this free medicine opportunity to keep accumulating medicinal toxins during these fifteen minutes..."

On the other side, Ye Lingxiao walked to the medicine cabinet and only took some combat drugs that boosted explosive power, restored stamina, and energy, planning to take them before the exam started.

After all, for him, he never lacked medicine in daily life; taking too much before the exam would only distract him with digestion and increase his body's burden.

Then, Ye Lingxiao touched the Spirit-Splitting Elixir (Dao-Solution Sustained-Release Capsules) he had brought and thought to himself, "I'll take it right before the exam. With dual thinking, combined with my bloodline potential, I'll use my strongest state to win this match and make these university representatives offer higher bids during recruitment."

Since it was the final level, Ye Lingxiao had no hesitation about going all out from the start.

What made him hesitate was whether his strongest state required one or two Spirit-Splitting Elixirs.

On this point, up until he took the Foundation Establishment exam today, the laboratory hadn't reached a conclusion.

Ye Lingxiao thought to himself, "Taking two might make me stronger, but taking two might also have unpredictable consequences."